Gender & Violence
Sociology of Gender Conference
All cartoons taken from www.cartoonbank.com
Andrew Carvajal
Rapist: what typically comes
to mind...
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Who is the stereotypical rapist?
The Sexual Victimization of
College Women
A collaboration of the National Institute of
Justice (NJS) and Bureau of Justice
Statistics (BJN)
Authors: Bonnie S. Fisher, Francis T. Cullen,
Michael G. Turner
U.S. Department of Justice – December
2000
General Information
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College women face a greater risk of rape
and other forms of sexual assault than
women in the general population, and
women in a comparable age group
Results based on a phone surveys with a
random sample of 4,446 college women
from all over the U.S.
Sexual victimization measured as
respondents’ answers to whether they had
experienced a variety of situations during
their college experience
The Findings
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2.8 % of the sample had experienced either
a completed rape (1.7%) or an attempted
rape incident (1.1%) during the survey
period
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1.8 % for rape and 1.3 % for attempted rape
in undergraduates
0.8% and 0% for non-undergraduates
However, projecting these numbers to a
whole academic year, the estimated % of
college girls who suffer full rape or
attempted rape is 5%

Over the course of a degree (4 or 5 years)
the % of completed or attempted rapes
among women can climb to 20-25%
Rates compared to noncollege women
More Findings
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Most women don’t define the incidents
construed as rape by the researchers,
as rape themselves
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Are researchers overstating the
problem, or students understating it?
15.5% of the women were sexually
victimized during the academic year
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Either through rape, attempted rape,
or threat of rape
More Findings
When and where does
victimization occur?
The vast majority of sexual
victimizations occurred in the evening
(after 6 p.m.)
 60% of on-campus rapes occurred in
residences, 31% in other living
quarters on-campus, and 10.3% in
fraternities

Relation with the Offender
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90% of the victims knew their offender
Protective action
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In both completed rape and sexual
coercion, victims were less likely to take
protective action
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Fewer than 5% of full or attempted rapes
were reported to law enforcement officials
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Using protective action might lead attempts
to rape or coerce sex to fail
Amongst the reasons cited were fear of
receiving hostility from the police and the
judicial system
13.1 % of victims had been stalked since
the start of the school year
Varied Risks
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4 main factors consistently increased
the risk of sexual victimization:
frequently drinking enough to get
drunk
 being unmarried
 having been a victim of a sexual
assault before the start of the school
year
 living on campus

Verbal Victimization
Type
General sexist remarks
Incidence
(% women)
54%
Cat calls, whistles about their
looks, etc
Obscene telephone calls
48%
Asked inappropriate questions
about romantic/sex life
19%
22%
Visual Victimization
Type
Incidence
(% women)
Exposed to pornographic
material w/out consent
Exposed to someone’s sexual
organs w/out consent
Someone tried to observe the
resp. undressing, nude, or in
sexual act w/out consent
Someone took video, pictures or
taped resp. having sex
6%
4.8%
2.4%
0.2 %
So, who is the average
rapist in our society?
School shootings:
A Gender Issue?
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Is gender the most critical factor in the
latest wave of school shootings?
A School Shooter Profile
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Following the shooting at Columbine
the US Secret Service (2000) offered
a report in which they said that there
“is no profile” for school shooters
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No profile???
Barry Loukaitis; Feb 2 1996
http://img.photobucket.com
White Boy
Luke Woodham; Oct 1 1997
White Boy
www.experts.about.com
Michael Carneal; Dec 1st
1997
White Boy
www. cnn.com
Mitchell Johnson & Andrew
Golden; March 24 1998
White Boys
http://www.baptiststandard.com
http://www.keystosaferschools.com
Kip Kinkel; May 21 1998
White Boy
http://www.jeremiahproject.com
Eric Harris & Dylan Klebold;
April 20 1999
www.nndb.com
http://www.olddoom.com
White Boys
Andrew Williams; March 5
2001
White Boy
http://news.bbc.co.uk
John Jason McLaughlin;
Sept 24 2003
White Boy
www.kare11.com
Eric Hainstock; Sept 29
2006
http://www.wrex.com
White Boy
No Profile?
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Maybe it is harder to identify a profile
when it is the “norm”
The white, heterosexual, male is often
the trait that most often goes
unnoticed in our analyses of social
problems
 It is invisible (see Kimmel’s “What
about the Boys”)
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No Profile?
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What would have happened if the
perpetrators of these shootings had
been mainly women, or black males
instead?
School shootings:
A Surrogate Debate
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Family changes, women in the workforce
Bad parenting
Depression/mental illness
Goth subculture
Gun control
Importance of religion, prayer, faith
Disrespectful youth/rebelliousness –
absence of traditional values
School shootings:
A Surrogate Debate
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Media, music, videogames, the internet
…
Maybe its time
to bring gender
into the picture!
More Answers
Yes: Michael Kimmel
“Snips and Snails… and Violent Urges”
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Gender as single most obvious and
intractable difference in violence in the US
We often talk about school shootings as
“youth” and “teen” violence
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But the majority of these teens are boys
Men and boys are responsible for 95% of
violent crimes in the US
From early age boys learn that violence is
an acceptable and admirable way of conflict
resolution
Yes: Michael Kimmel
“Snips and Snails… and Violent Urges”
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Most school shooters subject to teasing, bashing
and questioning of their masculinity
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Violence not in male brain or testosterone: boys
learn it
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Some turn inward: depression, drug-abuse,
isolation, suicide
Some turn outward: rage, violence
Media, sports, culture that glorifies heroic and
redemptive violence
Fathers; 50% own guns
We need to look at how ideals of manhood
became so entangled with violence
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School shooters are “real boys” and want to prove it
No: Alvin Poussaint
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Major role of depression
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Individuals trying to cope with internal anger
and rage
Not everyone turns into violence, so those at
risk should be referred to psychological
counseling
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Students should feel comfortable and
encouraged to tell teachers about peers
carrying weapons and making violent threats
Parents should see alienation, anger, making
threats and getting into fights as warning signs
As a neighbour/observer, you should report
parents who neglect or abuse their children to
social service agencies
No: Alvin Poussaint
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Offer alternative outlets to channel aggression
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Youth tends to normalize the violence they
see in the media, videogames
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Sports, communications with family and
friends, anger management
They don’t see that death is real
Institute programs that combat prejudice and
promote tolerance
Schools should pay more attention to warning
signs and the need for more moral education